The Clarion Project (“Challenging Extremism, Promoting Dialogue”, according to its website) reports that Turkish newspapers responded to the Islamic slaughter perpetrated against Charlie Hebdo (“Charlie Weekly”) by blaming the magazine.
In the Western world, on the other hand, though it did not blame the victims, CNN and others refused to show the caricatures that were the excuse for the attack.
Two Islamic terrorists burst into the Paris magazine’s office last week where a staff meeting was being held and opened fire; the result was 12 people dead, including two policemen shot afterwards.
These are Clarion’s findings:
The headline in Yeni Akit, a Turkish daily newspaper with ties to the ruling Islamist AK party, was: “Attack on The Magazine that Provoked Muslims.”
The Turkiye Gazetesi, another pro-AK party paper, ran an even stronger headline: “Attack on the Magazine that Insulted Our Master the Prophet.” Following heavy criticism on social media, the magazine changed it slightly: “Attack on the Magazine that Published Ugly Cartoons of Our Prophet.”
Finally, Turkiye Gazetesi’s English-language website ran a lukewarm headline – “American Muslims Condemn Paris Attack on Charlie Hebdo” – that did not give any hint as to the article’s contents. The article’s first sentence notes the magazine’s “history of publishing unflattering depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.”
The above newspapers implied in their reports that the writers and cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo brought the terrorist attack on themselves by exercising their freedom of expression.
The lesson seems to have been learned. CNN, for instance, has decided not to exercise its freedom of expression in this matter. Apparently fearing Muslim wrath, CNN’s Editorial Director Richard Griffith sent an internal memo reading, “We are not at this time showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet considered offensive by many Muslims.” In addition, while the Charlie Hebdo attack was still considered “Breaking News,” CNN’s Christiane Amanpour actually called the murderers “activists.”
CNN’s approach contrasted strongly with Fox News, whose Sean Hannity engaged in a hard-hitting and tense interview with London imam Anjem Choudary. “You’re saying you do not believe in freedom of speech, you don’t believe in freedom of expression, you believe in Islamic fascism, that people must abide by your laws,” Hannity said. Choudary calmly answered, “Actually, as a Muslim, we believe that sovereignty and supremacy belongs to God and therefore we believe in submitting to the commands of God” – which he then said includes capital punishment for insulting Muhammed.
The above media slant is not the only way in which Turkey is daring its NATO allies. Turkey’s foreign minister has invited terrorist Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to move to Turkey should he leave Qatar; there have been reports that Qatar wishes to expel Meshal.
In a recent article for the Gatestone Institute, Burak Bekdil summed up why people are beginning to ask whether Turkey belongs in NATO: “Theoretically, Turkey is a NATO ally. In reality, it is a part-time NATO ally. It became the first member state that had military exercises with the Syrian army and the Chinese Air Force; awarded a NATO-sensitive air defense contract to a Chinese company; supported jihadists in Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood elsewhere in the Middle East; allied with what NATO nations view as a terrorist organization (Hamas); shared, until recently, an embarrassing list of potentially terrorist-sponsoring countries with seven others including Syria and Pakistan, and sported a population with the lowest support for the NATO alliance.”
